decision. Don’t let other people make your decision for you.
Before we get started, I make this pledge to you: I’ll help you the way a good friend would, and I’ll do it without judgment, without bias, and without asking anything in return. When it’s useful, I’ll direct you toward other resources. The guidelines I present in this book will help to prepare you personally and financially to cope with foreclosure and to develop your strategy for turning the foreclosure process into opportunities!
YOU'RE NOT ALONE
Foreclosure is far more common than you might think. A study conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) found that one in every 200 homes will be foreclosed. Let’s put that number in perspective; in a city the size of Washington, D.C., that means 3,000 residents will lose their properties every year. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, in the U.S., one child in every classroom is at risk of losing their family home because their parents can’t pay the mortgage. Every three months, 250,000 new families enter into the foreclosure process. Remember the Great Recession and the years that followed? From January 2006 to April 2016, more than 6.3 million foreclosures were completed. Foreclosures hurt all of us. In a 2005 Chicago case study, researchers William C. Apgar, Mark Duda, and Rochelle Nawrocki Gorey found that a single foreclosure can cost local governments up to $34,000 for inspections, court actions, police and fire department efforts, potential demolition, unpaid water and sewage, and trash removal. Additionally, the foreclosure can have a negative impact of $220,000 on the equity and property values of nearby homes. Communities and regulators have begun to realize that getting you the help you deserve is in everyone’s best interest.
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